By Pamela McNeil
Although adolescent fertility can never rightly be classified as a "problem," teenage motherhood has become a serious concern in Jamaica. In 1977, the proportion of births to teenage mothers rose to 31% of all births. At that time, young mothers were likely to follow a pattern of repeat pregnancies, leading to 3-4 children by age 20. In 1978, the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCJF) started a quality program for adolescent mothers with the objective of motivating young mothers to choose education instead of continuous motherhood. Twenty years later, the WCJF’s Programme for Adolescent Mothers continues to encourage the continued education of pregnant or lactating girls under the age of 16.
Our goals are for teen mothers to return to school after the birth of their babies, to delay a second pregnancy until their professional goals are achieved, and to raise the employment potential of young mothers so that they have a viable alternative to depending on men for support. The program now includes 7 Centers and 6 Outreach Stations islandwide, which offer the following services:
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Educational Programming. Since pregnant girls are required to leave school during pregnancy, academic and skills training are geared towards strengthening participants’ capabilities and preparing them academically for return to the formal school system. For girls who were pregnant in the last year of high school, the program provides tutoring to prepare them for their final examinations. The Ministry of Education has approved the Kingston Women’s Centre as an official "Examination Center," so girls can take their exams at the Centre in order to receive their diploma. Additionally, Centers provide skills training that helps young women become employable; courses include baby clothes manufacturing, doll making and embroidery in urban Centers and chicken or fish farming, vegetable growing and bee-keeping in rural areas.
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Nutritional Education and Support. Teen pregnancies often carry the risk that neither mother nor child will have sufficient nourishment for proper growth. While participants and their parents receive information to foster good nutritional habits, participants are also provided with a daily cooked lunch; breakfast is also supplied to the very needy.
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Day Nursery. Each Center operates a nursery where the babies of teen mothers are cared for while mothers attend educational programs. Breastfeeding is facilitated and good parenting habits in both young mothers and young fathers are encouraged. Nurseries have been expanded to care for babies of working mothers who require affordable day care.
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Counseling and Referral Services. Extensive individual and group counseling are available to girls in order to build self-respect, explore emotional problems and increase understanding of sexual and reproductive health and family planning. Additionally, special counseling, parenting and referral programs are in place for the young "baby fathers" and the parents of teen mothers and teen fathers.
We have been particularly concerned about the effect that the Age of Consent Law has on young "baby fathers." The law defines statutory rape as any man having sexual relations with a young woman under the age of 16 years, resulting in a mandatory 5-year prison sentence. As a result of our constant appeals to authorities in Jamaica, judicial discretion can now be exercised regarding sentencing when the sexual activity is consensual and the young man is below the age of 23 years. Our counselors often speak in court on behalf of young fathers who are part of the Women’s Centre program.
Program Results
Since 1977, the WCJF has helped over 22,000 adolescent mothers return to the school system, and an assessment of the number of girls who have participated in the program who experienced a second pregnancy in any given year is only 1.4%. Many of the young women we serve have moved, with ease, through secondary school into tertiary institutions. Many have ended up serving their nation as teachers, doctors, lawyers, administrators or entrepreneurs.
WCJF also has broad coverage; figures for 1997 show that our program reached 51% of the 3,016 young women under 16 who gave birth islandwide. However, we feel the real achievements of the WCJF include:
- A decrease in the negative societal attitudes formally displayed towards the teen mother.
- The breakdown of the barriers within the Ministry of Education and the changes in the Education Code (a regulatory law) to allow teenage mothers to return to the school system.
- The thousands of young women who have been able to achieve academic successes and social advancement.
- The scholastic achievements of the children of teen mothers involved in our program.
- The decrease in the teen pregnancy rate from 31% of total births in 1977, to an estimated 23% 1997, according to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica.
Several evaluations of the WCJF Programme for Adolescent Mothers have shown clear differences between our clients and young mothers who did not receive our services. WCJF clients are more likely to complete their education and establish a career path, find jobs at twice the rate, and receive much higher pay than women who gave birth as adolescents but did not participate in our program. A 1996 study traced the lives of women who participated in the program in the past 15 years; the study found that 50.7% of all ex-participants still only had one child and the average spacing between first and second births of our clients was 5.5 years. The study also found results continuing into the next generation. All children of the early participants in the program are in school; 77% of those in children in secondary school are in traditional high schools, and no pregnancies have occurred in the adolescent children of women who participated in our program.
Dr. Sanshu Handa of the University of the West Indies also did a cost-benefit analysis of WCJF’s Programme for Adolescent Mothers, and states that in 1993 the social and private benefits due solely to increased education of adolescent mothers totaled J$136,915,770. There was an additional benefit in an estimated reduction of 323 births, with an implied savings to the health sector of J$13,840,873. Dr. Handa concludes that each Jamaican dollar invested in the WCJF Programme for Adolescent Mothers results in 6.7 dollars worth of benefits to society. In fact, due to the savings to the government, it now funds all salaries, wages and utility expenditures of the Women’s Centre.
Overcoming Obstacles
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The societal attitudes and the consequent difficulties encountered when attempting to place young mothers back in the school system have been difficult to overcome. The Center has an aggressive public relations program aimed at the public at large, utilizing interest groups, service clubs and parent-teacher associations to spread our messages. Our graduates have been the best promoters of the program through their commitment to education, their health reproductive practices and their courage in surmounting the barriers to their development as women. They are living examples that the program benefits not only participants, but their community and nation.
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Stable funding is difficult to secure, given the resource poor environment and the competition among organizations working on these issues. We work to develop positive relationships with agencies doing work related to our own, utilizing all avenues for the advancement of our clients and allowing for the "sharing of honors" so that competition between organizations is minimized.
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Finally, finding dependable, committed staff is difficult. We have found that individuals’ attitudes are as important as their educational qualifications and have often hired staff who work well with the girls and then, after being sure they are employees of merit, send them to our University for the required "paper" qualifications needed.
The dawning of empowerment for young women is delicately balanced among self-knowledge, reproductive rights, quality education and economic freedom. If we really believe that reproductive rights are human rights, then we must recognize the synergy that links reproductive rights and education to the empowerment of young women. This has been demonstrated time and time again in all the evaluations of the WCJF over several years.
Contact Person:
Pamela McNeil, National Director
The Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation
Program for Adolescent Mothers
42 Trafalgar Road
Kingston 10, Jamaica
West Indies
Tel/Fax: 876-926-5768
